Chapter 2336: Conversation with Nie Xuan
Just from looking at their traits, Zhou Ning was on a completely different level from the others, and this was even considering that their player levels and the number of times they had entered instances were roughly the same.
Since not everyone had arrived yet, Xu Huo took Zhou Ning a bit further away and gave her a private demonstration of the spiritual realm.
Zhou Ning's traits were indeed very compatible with spiritual interference, but she herself had not begun the secondary evolution toward the mental aspect, which was somewhat regrettable.
After repeatedly trying and failing, Zhou Ning finally said, "I've thought of many methods before, but I just can't seem to touch that threshold. I don't really hold much hope anymore. Keeping things as they are is fine—focusing on developing my traits is enough."
Xu Huo felt it was a pity and suggested she try equipping a spiritual-type item.
Spiritual-type items were mostly interference and support types. Interference types were basically designed specifically for Mental Super Evolvers, while support-type items were what evolvers needed. However, such items required the player themselves to have undergone secondary evolution to be effective. For players who hadn't undergone secondary evolution, even if they got their hands on them, they were useless—but Zhou Ning's situation was slightly special. Her traits were similar to mental evolution, and even if the item's effects were greatly diminished, as long as she was well-prepared, support items could still strike hard at enemies.
Xu Huo had a few A-grade mental support items, but those required mental evolution to use. So he picked out some B- and C-grade support items he had obtained from other players and gave them to Zhou Ning. "Try these. If you can use them, this might not be a bad direction to take."
Zhou Ning took them and, after a moment, said, "I really don't know how to thank you. You've always been helping me."
"Don't think too much about it," Xu Huo said. "In the future, if you no longer want to be a player, you're welcome to come and stay long-term in Ting City."
The unhealed scar on her face made Zhou Ning's smile a bit stiff, but she still voiced a beautiful wish. "I hope that in the future, District 014 will also have super instances, so that players who quit the game can truly start living."
In truth, for most players, the sudden change in their living environment and the constant life-and-death situations had already shattered their hearts. They were just barely holding on to survive.
"Your state of mind isn't right. Haven't you seen a psychotherapist?" Xu Huo asked again.
Zhou Ning shook her head. "I tried twice, but I couldn't trust them. They haven't undergone professional training. Doing psychotherapy for players feels more like collecting data."
There were truly professional people, but Xu Huo couldn't trust them either.
"How about I give it a try?" he suggested. "I've recently read a few books on the subject."
Zhou Ning knew he was trying to help her and didn't refuse. She obediently entered his spiritual realm.
Compared to people like Yuan Yao and Liu Jia, whose family and friends had all been saved, Zhou Ning's path had been rough from the very beginning of her evolution. In truth, her heart already harbored thoughts of heading toward death. But fortunately, she could still hold herself together, and her tendency toward self-destruction wasn't too severe.
After completing one session of psychological guidance, Xu Huo also embedded some subtle suggestions in the process. When it was over, he said, "If you can't untie the knot in your heart for now, the best way is to shift your attention. Find a rope and tie yourself to District 014."
Zhou Ning looked at him, and after a moment, she said, "I'll find a way myself."
Just as the two finished their conversation, Nie Xuan and Shen Xin arrived.
"I knew she was coming too, so I picked her up along the way," Nie Xuan said. "Anyone else?"
"There's still Gu Yu and Wen Xuelin." Xu Huo glanced at his phone. "The others can't be gathered."
With Nie Xuan present, Yuan Yao and the others weren't as relaxed as before, so he and Xu Huo sat a bit further away to chat.
Among those present, the one who understood time evolution the most, besides Xu Huo, was Nie Xuan. Naturally, he was also one of the people with a higher chance of success. So before starting, Xu Huo first discussed with him the state of existence of time power.
Nie Xuan had enough knowledge reserves, so he also agreed with Xu Huo's earlier view—that the basic unit of time power, like space power, existed in the form of rays. This was also the way most players could understand and accept it.
"It can't be said to be completely wrong, but the direction is a bit off," Xu Huo said. "Space power exists within the space the player occupies. By manipulating space rays, players can create weapons. This means the state of space power can be changed."
"Time power can't?" Nie Xuan immediately understood. "Back at the Carmen Field battle site, the time rewind we saw seemed to exist in a ray state as well."
"It depends on how you look at it." Xu Huo pointed a finger in the air at a small flower by his feet that had just formed a bud. A slender thread of time power landed on it, and the small bud gradually grew larger and looser, then opened petal by petal.
"Slender time power can also be seen as a ray state."
"But time power is different from space power. Players can only borrow it, usually from other spaces. If you try to break it down into a ray state, it's hard to refine and then reintegrate like space power. Treating it as a whole can save a lot of detours."
Nie Xuan watched the flower bloom and wither, then asked another question. "According to common sense, a district's space is absolutely sealed. Even a space teleportation item needs to maintain the portal's absolute integrity to teleport. Time power can't just pass through space on its own. How does it manage to penetrate space?"
Regarding this question, before the One-Third Game, Xu Huo might have been just as confused. He had only sensed and drawn on time power out of evolutionary instinct. As for how time power broke through space, and under what conditions it did so, he wasn't clear.
"I can't explain the principle very well," he said. "But recently, I've realized one truth: beneath time, there is no space."
"The One-Third Game?" Nie Xuan immediately said.
"That's right. The special water cube formed by time power," Xu Huo said. "Suppose a district's space is like a sphere. According to normal thinking, its interior should have stable time, and only the exterior should have time from other spaces."
"But in reality, time and time are not clearly separated. Different times may be separated from us by only a thin line. It's very simple for time power to penetrate space and come in."
"So a district's space shouldn't be divided into inside and outside the space. Instead, it should be seen as a whole—a single grain of sand in the torrent of time. Whether time soaks it or pierces through it, it's effortless."
"This is an angle I never considered before." Nie Xuan pondered for a moment and said, "If you go in the wrong direction, even if you actually start time evolution, you probably won't make much progress in a lifetime."